RE-ELECT
MAYOR WILLIAMS

My Fellow Citizens,
 

The best is yet to come! Over the next four years, Danville will continue to become one of the best places in the Midwest to live, work, invest, and play! Quality of life, such as housing, recycling, shopping and dining options, will be so good that those who live here will stay and opportunity will be so great that our young people will return home after training/college/military service to build their lives. Our beautiful parks, multimodal transportation network, vibrant cultural outlets, and hospitality will draw visitors from across the country, and many of them will choose to make Danville home.

 

Our business-friendly approach and reputation for progress will become nationally known, and that, combined with our great location and high-caliber workforce will make us a city of choice for new companies. In our city, everyone will work for the greater good, and because of that, everyone will thrive!  

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Together, we will capitalize on the momentum we’ve already built in our 5 pillars of progress to help bring this vision to reality.  Here is just a sampling of projects and initiatives that are underway:

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Strong Stewardship

• Continue paying off debt early so that we can save you money while also improving the city’s credit rating. Excess funds will be used to make road and other infrastructure improvements and help pay down pension liabilities.​​

• Continue using the vast majority of casino revenue and all of the cannabis revenue to make extra Police & Fire pension payments.  This will allow them to be fully funded in 10-15 years and allow us to eliminate the Public Safety Pension Fee, saving you millions of dollars each year.

• Continue multi-year budgeting & capital planning to allow for proactive management of our amenities, which will allow us to complete more infrastructure work with your tax dollars.

• Champion the ERP software replacement efforts that will modernize City's accounting and financial management to improve transparency and strategic planning.

 

Economic Expansion

• Utilize the recently awarded $4.5 Million grant from the State to remediate flooding issues to allow the full development of a combined 100 acre site on the East End.

• Finalize environmental cleanup of the southeast corner of Fairchild and Vermilion for redevelopment of the 2 acre site.

• Finalize the redevelopment of 311 W. Fairchild, which will include an indoor Action Park and 2 restaurants.

• Use the extended Midtown TIF and newly formed S. Gilbert TIF to secure additional retail, restaurant, and fueil options.

• Leverage new developments such as Carle at the Riverfront, Golden Nugget Danville, Chik-fil-A, Sonic, and Kirchner projects to propel further economic investment.

• Implement the Home Grown Initiative – information forthcoming - a renewed focus on housing redevelopment & infill in the center city.

• Continue forming creative solutions to fill all vacant/partially vacant commercial properties.

 

Improved Infrastructure

• Complete Organized, Objective, Strategic Improvements using the PW Strategic Plan - Top 10 List.

• Continue implementing the Vermilion County Safety Action Plan which helped identify, prioritize, and address transportation safety issues throughout both the Danville metropolitan area and the County as a whole.  This better informed and prepared local agencies to be more competitive for grant programs and resulted in $10M SS4A Grant Award for Bowman & Seminary Improvements which will begin in 2027.

• Continue aggressive maintenance, repair, and replacement of streets and sidewalks, including 10-15% of streets in 2027 alone.  

• Implement a $25M Multi-Year Sewer Inflow/Infiltration Elimination Plan

  • Performed multiple robust studies to identify areas of greatest concern

  • Plan for 5-year $25M IEPA WPCLP funded I&I elimination plan to address I&I in over 20% of our sanitary sewer system

• Complete major stormwater improvements, including the final 2 of the top 10 projects in the Stormwater Master Plan, which will eliminate flooding in various neighborhoods.

• Develop a solar installation at H&L landfill that either powers the city or provides funding to pay our power bills.

• Complete $400k SPR grant funded Rail Consolidation Study to eventually help make travel through and around town quicker..

• Complete Top 10 Bridge Repair Needs Evaluation & Planning.

• Implement Public Facility Capital Planning (DMT, Fire Stations, City Hall, Public Works).

• Continued work with IDOT on joint projects (Bowman/Texas Roundabout, Route 1 Rehab slated for near future, etc.)

 

Safer Streets

• Hire another Police Intel Analyst and continue to expand camera coverage to help us solve and prevent crime.

• Leverage grant funding and partnerships with other entities  such as the Sherriff's Department to maximize law enforcement capabilities, which will yield decreased criminal activity.

• Develop final plans and secure funding for desperately needed new fire stations.

 

Community Care

• Implement final phases of city-wide branding initiative to continue improvement of internal and external perceptions of our community and our image outside of Danville.

• Continue strategic demolitions to eliminate blight, improve safety, shore up property values, and prepare neighborhoods for housing infill.  We are currently working on two such housing developments.

• Continue major park renovations, including but not limited to major upgrades at Douglas & Meade Parks.

• Implementation of Phase 1 of the Riverfront Development in Spring of 2027

• Kickapoo Rail Trail Routing Study (hopeful phased implementation with ITEP grant support if awarded)

• Further development of the Riverfront & Westside Trails Plans which will connect the Kickapoo Rail Trail to Downtown Danville.

• Secured grant funding to revitalize Lindley Signpost Forest and construct a new Food Truck Plaza Downtown.

 

I hope you will agree that a vote for me between January 15th and February 23rd is a vote for PROVEN PROGRESS that will propel us into a PROSPEROUS FUTURE! If we work together to keep the momentum going, we will surely make Danville one of the best places in the Midwest to live, work, invest, and play! Thank you for your consideration and support; I’ll work hard every day to earn and keep it. 

 

Most sincerely,